The Stock Exchange received national… pressures

The Athens Stock Exchange finally closed with losses, which, although it tried to move higher, finally slipped back below 800 units, under the weight of the banking sector, which remains the weak link.

In particular, the General Index closed with a fall of 0.86% at 796.41 points, while today it moved between 808.59 points (+0.66%) and 790.48 points (-1.59%). The turnover amounted to 62.12 million euros and the volume to 23.25 million pieces, while 1.95 million pieces were traded through pre-agreed transactions.

The high-cap index closed down 0.91%, at 1,905.21 points, while the Mid Cap closed down -0.46% at 1,301.03 points. The banking index closed down 3.09% at 452.67 points.

After the morning movement towards 808 units, the ASE failed to maintain the upward tempo, causing a new wave of liquidations. But a wave that came with very low turnover, given that over €11.5 million was traded through packages, with the supports proving powerless to hold the psychological limit of 800 units.

Thus, there were not a few participants who took today’s move as a correction, after a fortnight of satisfactory reaction. After all, in a low turnover environment, even small and selective moves are capable of changing the final image of the market, which by definition lately is cautious about where it is placed and what risk it adds, given that the degree of uncertainty is very high.

However, expectations for the next day are very low, as no one yet knows what the impact of energy costs will be on businesses and consumers, and on the economy as a whole, even if the Commission today raised its estimates for its growth performance Greece this year. After all, even if Greece manages to manage the dreaded energy crisis, due to the mix of its production, the situation in Europe cannot leave the policy of the European Central Bank unaffected.

However, today the Commission proceeded with a significant upward revision of growth, which is expected to reach 4% this year, and of annual inflation, which is expected to reach 8.9%, as part of its summer forecasts. More important, however, is the revision of the annual inflation forecast for next year which is expected to reach 3.5% from 1.9% predicted in the spring estimates. This is an indication that high fuel and food prices will continue to weigh on households and businesses throughout the coming year.

On the dashboard

On the board now, Ethniki closed with losses of 5.07%, with Titan and Lambda following with -3.85% and -3.83% respectively. Alpha Bank, Piraeus, Quest, Mytileneos and Sarantis closed above -2% and Eurobank, ADMIE and Jumbo closed above -1%.

Motor Oil, Aegean, Biohalco, Hellenic Petroleum, GEK Terna and Ellactor closed slightly lower, with ELHA and PPC closing unchanged. On the other hand, gains were small in OTE, Terna Energy and Coca Cola, while EYDAP, OPAP and PPA closed with a rise that exceeded 2%.